Jeffrey Epstein’s Friend Is on a Spree: TV, Radio & Papers in New England and Across U.S.

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

GoLocalProv Business Team

 

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Black's Apollo is buying media across the country

Sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein’s close friend Leon Black is one of the most powerful men on Wall Street.

And, his company Apollo Global Management is going on a buying-and-financing binge of news media companies, which combined have major holdings in New England and across the country.

Black is Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Apollo.

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Presently, Apollo owns Cox Media Group and is in the final stages of acquiring national media group Tegna which owns television, radio, and newspapers across the country. Some of Tegna's TV stations have roots at the Providence Journal company and were sold to A.H. Belo in the mid-1990s.

And, as GoLocal has reported, Apollo is financing the largest newspaper merger in U.S. history between GateHouse and Gannett.

If deals close that are presently in process, Apollo would directly control TV, radio or newspapers in nearly every major market in the United States including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Atlanta.

In Atlanta, Apollo’s Cox owns the Atlanta-Journal Constitution -- and if Apollo finalizes the deal to close Tegna, then it would control the Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA.

This does not include Apollo's role in the $1.79 billion financing of the merger between GateHouse Media and Gannett.

The financial influence -- directly and indirectly -- over so many news media companies raises the questions about media control and begs the question if Black could create a Sinclair Broadcasting like-company that has a specific political bent or influence editorial and news coverage.

Sinclair which owns WJAR-10 in the Providence market and hundreds of stations across the country has been widely criticized for its pro-Donald Trump messaging.

Black has made hundreds of thousands of political contributions to everyone from U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to Rhode Island's junior U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.

The communications consultants for Apollo did not respond to questions about the growing media influence or if the company had or would make any pledge regarding news coverage. 

 

In New England

In New England, Apollo controls Cox Media Group which owns Boston’s Fox 25, and is presently in negotiations to purchase Tegna, which owns TV stations across the country including one in Maine.

And, Apollo's financing of the $1.79 billion deal between GateHouse Media and Gannett creates a massive national newspaper group owning nearly 300 daily newspapers across the country with massive holdings in New England.

GateHouse owns the Providence Journal, Worcester Telegram, the Fall River Herald, the Standard of New Bedford, the Newport Daily News and dozens of other daily and weekly newspapers across New England.

 

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Apollo's Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein

Epstein and Black

Epstein and Black had a long-standing friendship and business relationship.  Black and his wife Deborah were two of the members of their own family foundation. The third member? Epstein.

Epstein served on the Blacks' foundation board both before and after being convicted as a sexual predator in Florida.

In response to press coverage of his relationship with Epstein,

“I was completely unaware of, and am deeply troubled by, the conduct that is now the subject of the federal criminal charges brought against him,” Mr. Black read from the email during an investor phone call reported the Wall Street Journal.

"Mr. Black, a widely respected figure on Wall Street, was also an important connection for Mr. Epstein. The two met in the late 1990s, and Mr. Epstein soon began working for Mr. Black. Over the next 15 or so years, including after Mr. Epstein’s guilty plea in 2008, the two men met at Mr. Epstein’s palatial townhouse in Manhattan, according to people who were there," reports the New York Times.

 

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If Tegna deal closes, Apollo will control 65 stations across the country

Combined Media in Ownership and Financing

If Apollo completes the deal to acquire Tegna, and shareholders approve the Gannett and GateHouse deal, Black’s Apollo would be directly involved in media that would include:

TV: 65 stations

RADIO: 65 Stations

NEWSPAPERS: Nearly 300 daily papers

“Subsequently, in June 2019, Apollo made a different proposal, to combine TEGNA with broadcasting assets Apollo is in the process of buying, in a transaction that would not have constituted a change of control of TEGNA. TEGNA does not intend to update this disclosure,” Tegna disclosed in a press statement last week.

In June, David Sambur, a Senior Partner of Apollo and chairman of the buyer, said in regards to the acquisition, “Cox has deep roots in the media industry and has stood for the highest quality in local journalism for the past 120 years. As we shepherd these businesses into the future, we are committed to investing in high quality programming and fostering innovation in local media.”

 

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